by their Number outgrown the Political part of Persecution For the Second Consideration of Liberty the giving it so as will naturally produce several Principles and Opinions in men he that would prevent that must give no Liberty to the Protestant Religion must not let the Bible be read by the Vulgar There is no way to keep out several Opinions in Religion but an implicit ignorant Subjection to an imposed Infallibility and to do as the Turks do who will not have any Learning or Discourse amongst them of Religion for that very Reason because they will have no Religion but Mahomet nor no Learning but the Alcoran Such Policy to Murder mens Souls is hatcht in Hell The Art of Printing was at the first thought dangerous because it was looked on as a thing like to introduce several Opinions in Religion Cardinal Woolsey in a Letter of his to the Pope hath this Passage about it That his Holiness could not be ignorant what divers Effects the New Invention of Printing had produced for as it had brought in and restored Books and Learning so together it hath been the occasion of these Sects and Schisms which daily appear in the World but chiefly in Germany where men begin now to call in question the present Faith and Tenents of the Church and to examine how far Religion is departed from its Primitive Institution And that which particularly was most to be lamented they had exhorted the Lay and Ordinary men to read the Scriptures and to Pray in their Vulgar Tongue That if this were suffered besides all other dangers the common People at last might come to believe that there was not so much use of the Clergy for if men were perswaded once they could make their own way to God and that Prayers in their native and ordinary Language might pierce Heaven as well as in Latin How much would the Authority of the Mass fall How Prejudicial might this prove unto all our Ecclesiastical Orders Lord Herberts History of Hen. 8. Liberty of Conscience lies as naturally necessary to a Protestant State as Imposition to a Popish State he must be a good Artist that can find a right middle way between these two 'T is the Glory of Protestant-States to have much of the Knowledge of God amongst them and that variety of mens Opinions about some less weighty and more obscure matters of Religion as it much tends to a discovery of the Truth of them so it no way breaks the Bond of Protestant Union where men generally agree in the same Rule of Religion and in all the chief and necessary Fundamentals of Salvation Liberty of Conscience in such States as it is their true and genuine Interest and without which they will but deny themselves those advantages they might otherwise arrive at so with the forementioned Boundaries can never prove hurtful or dangerous there being always a just distinction to be made between those who desire only to serve God and such who pretend that to become injurious to men And thus we have seen that not only Religion but Reason not only Duty but Interest do invocate Princes and States in this particular To whom it may fitly be said in the words of the Psalmist Be wise now therefore O ye Kings and be instructed O ye Judges of the Earth FINIS De Christiana Libertate Or the Mischief of Impositions amongst the People called Quakers Made Manifest Shewing The Inconsistency betwixt the Church Discipline Order and Government erected by G. Fox and those of Party with him and that in the Primitive Times Being Historically treated on WITH A Word of Advice to the Pencilvanians And is the First Part of Naked Truth By FRANCIS BUGG GAL. 6.12 As many as desire to make a fair shew in the Flesh they constrain you to be Circumcised c. GAL. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not again intangled in the Yoak of Bondage GAL. 5.2 Touch not taste not handle not c. London Printed for the Author 1682. An EPISTLE Dedicated to the Noble BEREANS Of this Age. HAving by the Book prefixed laid before the Magistrates and others concerned a clear Demonstration and many weighty Arguments for Liberty of Conscience to all Protestant Dissenters who desire to live a peaceable Life under the Government I am now come to treat on the Religious Differences amongst us the People called Quakers and therein to vindicate the Christian-Quakers who retain their Primitive Principles and defend their Plea for Liberty of Conscience from the Calumny and Reproach which the Innovators have put upon both it and the Pleaders thereof as if the Tendency thereof was to introduce Loosness Ranterism or the like sort of Abominations all which we detest and deny And in the Introduction to the Accus c. they have Sentenced William Rogers to be no Quaker by which they mean no Christian for if I may be in their account a true Christian and yet no Quaker then what damage is it to be no Quaker So that as the Baptists and others about the Year 72. by their Dialogues and otherwise rendred us no Christians because our Creed lay not litterally in their 8th Article of Faith So doth the Apostate and Innovator endeavour to Unchristian the true Christian-Quaker And the two principal Reasons that can be alledged against us are First our Nonsubmission and Nonconformity to the New Order of the Women Erected by G. Fox and Confirmed by a London Yearly-Meeting And Secondly That their way of compelling and Antichristian way of Proceeding to bring to and force a Uniformity is by us slighted and contemned and published in Justification of our Plea for the Liberty of the exercise of our Conscience in Matters Spiritual I say these two are the grand Reasons for which they render us no Quakers as I said consequently in their Esteem no Christians Whereupon we the Caluminated Abettors of the Cause of Truth can do no less than call to you the BEREANS of our Age not to believe every wandring Book that is put forth against us but read and examine the Matter and before you pass Judgment see what we can say for our selves in Defence of our Christian-Plea for Liberty of Conscience and for which Reason I choose to Dedicate the Ensuing Tract in the first Place to you expecting your Impartial Examination c. For as William Penn very well says in his Epistle to you the Noble and Examining BEREANS who usually hear both Sides in the Front of the Book Entituled the Christian-Quaker and his Divine Testimony Vindicated c. So we find it Experimentally viz. The Insatiable Thirst of men after Religious or Civil Empire hath filled almost every Age with Contest There is something in Man that prompts to Religion and such as stand not in the TRADITIONS of Men nor any meer Formality But Man that he may not loose the Honour of a Share with an unwarrantable Activity so Adulterates by
own Hand would neither Answer the Letter nor so much as Discourse me but when I had given them the Letter C. T. bad me be gone All which shews the Author to the Accuser his Pretentions to an Accommodation Condiscention to be fallacious Deceitful and Hypocritical Object BY this time some may be ready to object and say It is true these Things as Stated cannot be denyed but to have used a more private way might have been as convincing and not have ministred that occasion to such as are Enemies to all Religion as this way of Proceeding perhaps may especially since the Author of the Accuser says p. 127. We can the more easily concur and accord as to Circumstances and Outward Methods and in the Wisdom of God so condiscend one to another and accommodate Matters as not to divid about them Answ That I with many other have used private meanes for about the space of four years without any Redress nay not so much as a Christian Answer and that the Pretence of the Author of the Accuser to Condiscention and Accommodation is fallacious and false and a meer piece of feigned Hypocrisy to amuse his Reader and delude the World I shall make evidently appear before I pass this Chapter especially considering what meanes I used at our Quarterly-Meeting in the Case of J. A. made mention of in the third Chapter both by Letters and Queries First then see a Letter that eleven Friends belonging to our Meeting in Milden-Hall sent to our Quarterly Meeting who were so far from Condiscention Accommodation as that they refused to have it read amongst them but said We were all deluded A Copy whereof followeth To Friends at the Quarterly Meeting in Hadenham the 4th Mo. 80. Dear Friends THese Lines are to put you in Mind that many Friends belonging to our Meeting as well as in divers other Places are offended and burthened by reason of the continued Record against John Ansloe which exclude him what in you lye out of the Unity of Friends which is nothing less than Excommunication to the utmost of your Power whereby we are constrained to visit you in this manner entreating you to race out the said Record out of your Quarterly Book Indeed had J. A. denyed Marriage the very forbidding of which is a Doctrine of Devils you might justly have thrown him out for Marriage is Gods Ordinance But the Controversy is not here but about manifesting his Intention to Marry Behold the Crime as you account it and consider of it we beseech you for Peace sake and lay not such a Stress where Christ nor his Primitive Followers laid none And that thereunto you may be encouraged ponder the saying of W. P. in his Address to Prot. p. 77. I beseech you Protestants by the Mercies of God and Love of Jesus Christ ratified to you in his most precious Blood FLY ROME AT ROME Look to the Enemies of your own House have a care of this Presumption carry it not too high lay not Stress where God hath laid none The Impositions of such Opinions is the Priviledge of Hypocrites and the Snare of many honest Minds And p. 93. If we consider the Matter well I fear saith W. P. it will be found that the occasion of Disturbance in the Church of Christ hath in most Ages been found to lye on the Side of those who have had the greatest Sway in it And Pag. 94. If the Spiritual Guides and Fathers of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbring Churches with needless Supersluities there were far less danger of Schism and Superstition And Pag. 144. Nay Christ himself to whom all Power was given in Heaven and Earth submitted himself to the Test He did not require them to believe him because he would be believed he refers them to the Witness that God bore of him saying If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true He also sends them to the Scriptures but an Imposing Church bears witness of her self and will be both Party and Judge require Assent without Evidence and Faith without Proof therefore false But Christian Religion ought to be carryed on only by that way by which it was Introduced which was Perswasion If any Man will be my Disciple let him take up his Cross and follow me Pag. 146. For if I believe what the Church believes only beause She believes and not because I am convinced in my Vnderstanding of the Truth of what She believes my Faith is false though hers be true I say 't is not true to me I have no Evidence of it And Pag. 141. The Apostle became all unto all that he might win some but this is becoming all unto none to force all he therefore recomends the utmost Condiscention that can be lawful he stooped he became all unto all that is he stooped to all Capacities and humbled himself to those Degrees of Knowledge that Men had and valued that which was good in all These Allurements were all his Injunctions nay in this Case he makes it an Injunction to use no other Let us therefore saith he as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you you shall not be Imposed upon Stigmatized or Excommunicated for want of full satisfaction or because you do not consent before Conviction Thus far William Penn. Now let us a little animadvert upon this Noble Mans Words Lay no Stress saith he where God hath not laid Stress as if he should have said Friends God never laid any such Stress about publishing the Intent of Marriage Why then do you Have a care of this Presumption carry not things too high neither Smite Record nor Excommunicate one another about such Things which are at best but Mens Traditions and Impositions which may prove a Snare to the Honest and Conscientious but a seeming Priviledge to the conformable Hypocrite for you see that such as have the greatest Sway in the Church are evermore the cause of these Disturbances who pretending themselves Fathers and Spiritual Guides are not sparing of cumbring the Churches with needless Superfluities and such Orders as Christ never commanded nor his Apostles ever practised which had they been so useful as you pretend they be surely Christ and his Apostles would not have been so forgetful of Prescribing such Outward Observations nay but on the contrary they have told us in Holy Writ The Kingdom of Heaven comes not that way neither consists in such things You also may perceive that Christ was such an Example of Meekness and Self-denyal and so far and free from Force and Imposition that he only said If any Man will be my Discipie let him take up his Cross and follow me but an Imposing Church bears witness of her self and though She sets up such Orders as Christ never commanded yet She requires assent without Evidence and Faith without Proof for She will be both Party and Judge
and Recorder out of the Unity at her pleasure which manifests her to be the false Church for the true Christian Religion was introduced by Perswasion and ought to be so carryed on for if I believe and practice only because the Church doth so ad not from a convincement in my self my Faith and Obedience would be false and Idolatrous The Apostles who had the Mind of Christ became all unto all stooped to all Capacities to all Degrees of Knowledge valued what was good in all these were his Injunctions who said As every Man is fully perswaded so let him walk for what is not of Faith is Sin He did not Record out of the Unity such as saw not so clear as himself but became all unto all that he might save some but you that would force all become all to none you will not stoop at all nor condiscend at all but exalt and magnifie your Orders and written Prescriptions how many weak Brethren soever you offend You value not the good in any but Conformity to your Humour and to your Will and though some are otherwise minded about Discipline and Church-Government you will not let them alone but you will impose upon them Stigmatise and Record them out of the Unity which is no less than Excommunication Wherefore take W. P's Advice FLY ROME AT HOME and lay not Stress where God lays not Stress Thus twice over as it were have you herein the genuine sense of Dear W. P. And Oh! that every one concerned would make a diligent search in his own Heart and like the beloved Disciple smite upon his Breast and say Is it I Is it I that am guilty of this Severity of this Presumption if carrying things too high of setting up such Orders as prove a Snare or at least a burthen to the Conscientious yea of laying a Stress and a great Stress where God never laid any One that am the Cause of this Disturbance in the Church One that bears witness of my self and that will be both Party and Judge Oh! let me a little Examine my self Am I One that cannot become all unto all One that cannot condiscend at all to my Brother One that will value not the good in any but Conformity to my Will and Humour One that would have all believe and practice as I do whether I convince their Vnderstanding of the Truth of what I believe and practice or not and if not condemn them for Hereticks without any more a do I say Oh that every one would thus reflect upon himself that so you might consider of these things for many are offended and grieved with the continuance of the aforementioned Record against J. A. And again beseech and intreat you to reverse the same that so Love and Good-will Unity and Concord may spring amongst us as in the Beginning which is heartily desired by your Friends who subscribe their names hereunto Francis Bugg Elizabeth Bugg Joseph Masson Jane Masson Joseph Ellington Rachel Ellington John Thrift Joseph Tetsall William Bellsham Phillip Wing Mary Huggins Sarah Bird. Dated the 15th of the 3d. Month 1680. Note That John Thrift who carried the recited Letter to the Quarterly-Meeting said that they would not suffer it to be read but cryed out You are deluded Which by the Second-days Meetings own Rule if they approved W. P's small Tract Entituled A Brief Examination and State of Liberty Spiritual is a mark of Imposition For in the said Tract p. 4. 't is thus written I ask thee May I not exhort thee to the Practice of that I am moved to press thee to the Practice of If not thou are the Imposer by restraining me from my Christan-Liberty and not only so but away goeth Preaching and with it the Scriptures that are both appointed of God for Exhortation Reproof and Instruction Their Proceedings herein need no Comment being worse than the Magistrates ever served me who do as really believe me to be deluded as they could pretend to any such Thing and yet they will often hear and do Justice too And after I had waited more than a Year and saw no Redress I then wrote to W. P. thinking he might be an Instrument to compose things but what he did whether any thing or nothing I never had any Answer to this Day A Coppy of which now followeth Viz. This for W. P. with Care c. Dear Friend VVHen I consider the Nature of the Controversy betwixt W. R. and G. F. and the multitude of Friends on each side in almost all Counties together with the lamentable Consequences which will unavoidably follow the same if not timely put a stop to by a Brotherly Condiscention I am even bowed down and grieved to behold the same and under a sense thereof I desire to lay before thee my Apprehension both of the Cause and Cure that so thou together with G. W. to whom I have already wrote may endeavour a Composure of this Controversy and in remembrance of what thou didst declare at the Meeting at Devonshire House the 27th of the 3d. Month last after the Debate gives me Incouragement so to do as also they Printed Addr. to Prot. for saidst thou If I knew of such a Design as is surmised to bring in an Implicit Faith and Blind Obedience by forcing a Conformity before Conviction I would oppose it with my at most Endeavour or to that effect Now that thou mayst know if yet thou dost not as that thou shouldst not by thy positive Assertions in Alexander the Copper Smith pag. 10. 12. 15. I will give thee a Copy of Orders Recorded as our Cannon or Rule to walk by in the Quarterly Book for the Isle of Ely Verbatim Parenthesis excepted Viz. It is ordered at this Quarterly-Meeting and agreed upon that no Friends may for time to come permit or suffer Marriages without the consent of Friends at two Mens and Womens-Meetings and the Man and Woman to come both to the said two Meetings to receive the Answer of Friends that so no disorderly a notable Hedge without parrellel I presume or Indirect Proceedings may be carryed on any more and yet never more disorderly than since contrary to the Vnity of Friends Written at a Quarterly Meeting in Hadenham the 1st of the 10th Month 1675. Behold the Nature Manner and Form of these Orders and compare them with the Condemnation of J. A. for not coming up to a strict Conformity who was Recorded out of the Unity the 4th of the 7th Month 1678. in the same Book as may be seen for not proceeding in his Marriage according to the Orders Now see whether we do not first make a Rule or Cannon to walk by and compel a Conformity to the same before Conviction nay not only so but pass Diffinitive Sentence too for Nonconformity to the utmost of our little Power we have and when any Body questions the Authority of these Orders and Practices G. F. is presently quoted and that being as some say moved to
Reflect Act in Adams knowledge that he fully viewed and beheld himself and knew in what a happy estate God had made him is also clear and that this exercise of his knowledge also in a way of Conscience he had to tell him he was accepted of God and did well in whatsoever he did but that equal reflection of mans Understanding both towards good and evil allowing the one and condemning the other was first introduced when he did eat of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil which was so called by anticipation because by the sin committed in eating of it Adam who knew nothing before neither in himself nor any other Creature but what was perfectly good came to the miserable knowledge of good and evil Evil before he could not know for till he had sinned there could be no such thing presented to his view but in that act of his sinning he saw the greatest Evil and the root of all other Evil what was Good also by his fall he came to know in another manner than before for before he knew it only simply considered in it self but now as it stood in a direct contrariety and opposition unto Evil. That perfect knowledge man had at the first so far retains since the fall its excellent nature as to be a distinguisher between Good and Evil and a constant witness for God in his soul and by secret reference to what he was at first tells him what he still ought to be And this is the thing we call Conscince which as it is the best thing left in man by far since the fall so 't is the noblest and worthiest thing the world hath left in it and which above all others ought to be cherished and valued as that whereby God is most acknowledged each man in his own brest most quieted and settled and mankind best enabled to live peaceably in society and converse together That it hath continued amongst men ever since the Fall is plain if we consider that even in the darkest times of divine Knowledge before any Law from God was written this knowledge men had of themselves in reference to God was a Law unto them Their natural light derived to them from their first creation dictating to them what they ought to do and what not and enabling them to pass a judgment upon themselves of their due behaviour towards God and this the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans calls Conscience which will either excuse them or accuse them in the great Judgment day when the secrets of mens hearts shall be made known There be since mans fall two things eminently left in him A sence and knowledge of God though remote and that two ways first by Instinct in his very composition and constitution God making him at first in his own Image and secondly by the use of his reason in beholding the works of creation and providence which he does daily behold and converse with and which do eminently preach God unto him the other thing is a sence of pleasing or displeasing God by doing what his understanding tells him is good or ill and this is to each man a Law so Paul in that place of the Romans tells us That those that have not the Law written are a Law unto themselves and do by nature the things contained in the Law When afterwards men came to be under a law written and the knowledge of Gods mind concerning man was more clearly revealed every man came to have a larger view of his duty and clearer reflection upon himself in reference to it and so came to have a more enlightned Conscience suitable to the enlargedness of his understanding in his walking before God This then being premised that mans perfect knowledge which he had at first does still retain a taste of and a discerning principle between good and evil and does enable a man to judge of himself in reference to his pleasing or displeasing of God by the one and the other and that every man hath more or less in him of that we call Conscience unless in some particular cases whereby often endeavouring to resist and oppose Conscience God in just judgment takes away the use of it and that Conscience is wholly regulated by the understanding and the light thereof We will consider First That men do and always have differed in their understandings and apprehensions and so in their Consciences about divine things and their duty to God Secondly what the grounds and reasons are upon which men come to differ And Thirdly How far men are to be tolerated and indulged one by another in such variety and difference of knowledge and conscience For the first we shall find it too obviously plain so to have been in all times A man must have some ill will either to himself or his Reader that should spend much time in the proof of it If we look into those early times before any Law was written though all men had one common instinct of God in their nature and being and had the same outward Mediums of the knowledge of God which were the works of Creation and Providence for there is no place where their Voice sounded not yet doubtless the various Apprehensions of God and of mans duty to him were very great some improving those common Rudiments of Divinity to more reverent thoughts of a Deity and a more sober virtuous way of living by their natural light and others so far degenerating from them as that when they know God and might have known more of him they glorified him not as God but turned the glory of the true and incorruptible God into mock-Deities of Birds and Beasts and so came to be given up to all manner of Evil. Such who lived in those dayes and were by dreams visions voices and otherwise particularly enlightned had other kind of apprehensions of God and principles of Conscience suitable thereunto which yet could reach no further than themselves nor be obliging to others farther than they could justifie those divine discoveries in their own nature or by the credit of their own testimony gain belief and perswade men thereunto When aferwards the Law came to be written in Stone which was from the beginning written in the Heart and was in truth no other than a transcript of the Law of Nature and the Light thereof yet what great variety do we find in the Exposition of it and what various Principles derived from it he is a great stranger to all Rabbinical Learning who knows not the wide compass of the Jewish Debates and Controversies And since the times of the largest and fullest Revelation of the Mind and Will of God in the days of the Gospel do we not see that knowledge hath multiplied Division What great variety of thoughts have arisen amongst men not only concerning those more obscure Notions of the Order and Discipline of the Gospel Church but of most of the other Doctrines and Truths of Religion And so general
Gospel not mighty through God but mighty through the Magistrates power and wholly to alter the nature of the Gospel and all its Institutions 't is to arm the Church with Weapons Christ never gave her and to make her a Military rather than a Spiritual Society Thirdly Suppose but this truth That all Churches even the purest are in the execution of Christs Laws fallible and lyable to mistake this Doctrine hath a marvellous tendency to bring the Magistrate under great transgression and each Christian under a possibility of such bondage as the Gospel no where imposes on him If a man be unjustly cast out of a Church and the Magistrate proceeds against him he executes an evil Sentence and does it blindfold being by this Doctrine an Officer no way competent nor in any capacity to make a judgment of the truth or error of it and so cannot possibly escape a greater sin A Christian unduly cast out of a Church hath this security against such a proceeding that Christ will never ratifie it upon his Conscience but by this manner of execution he is sure whether the Sentence be right or no to fall under as heavy an outward suffering as the Magistrates Sword can inflict upon him And by this means it will come to pass that men shall be more dangerously concerned in their Lives and Estates by being in the Church than by being Members of any Society whatsoever The third Extream in this matter lies amongst those who say That the Magistrate hath nothing at all to do about Religion This lies very wide from truth and cannot in such a general Position be made good if we consider First That every man in the World as he is a Creature and a Subject to the great God is bound in his station and in Gods way to promote his honour and endeavour that his Will may be done in the World it would be strange that the Magistrate who is his chief Officer should be no way concerned to see the Laws which God gives the World put in execution by the Persons and in the manner he hath appointed it 't is not to be imagined that he that hath the complicated relation of a Christian and a Magistrate to others should have no care relative to their Spiritual good 't were to say the Magistrate must not do that which every man else in the World is bound to do Secondly God never since the world began trusted any with the care of mens bodies but he entrusted them likewise with some care of their Souls If we look over all the Natural and Moral Relations in the world such as Parents Masters General of Armies we shall ever find it so Men are to be ruled over as Creatures that have immortal Souls to be chiefly cared for and they are to be ruled over as such who have a special relation to God and a homage to pay him above all the rest of the world a rule over men without some respect to this would denominate mankind into Brutes Thirdly To say the Magistrate hath nothing to do about Religion is to deny what hath been practised by the Light of Nature before the Law was practised under the Law suitable to that dispensation and both commanded and commended and is to be practised under the Gospel suitable to this dispensation and is foretold as a blessing so to be and in fact hath been so ever since there hath been a Magistrate Christian in the world Having thus considered these hurtful Extreams about the Magistrates Power the last thing to come under consideration will be the due bounds of a Magistrates Power under the Gospel that is How far a Magistrate being Christian may improvedly exercise his natural power for the advantage and benefit of the Gospel and wherein he stands bounded and obliged not to proceed The preserving a right state whereof through the torrent of these Extreams will be of singular moment to the matter in hand We have seen that the power of a Heathen and a Christian Magistrate differs nothing at all in kind A Heathen Magistrate hath the same right and is bound to do as much in Religion as a Christian only the one having more knowledge of God and his Mind is bound improvedly to exercise his power accordingly the first thing a Christian Magistrate stands bound to do for the good of Religion is to afford the Churches all negative good that is to remove all Oppression from them and all things that do any way hinder them to enjoy the Institutions of Christ he is to give them rest that they may be edified and walk in the comforts of the Holy Ghost and lead quiet and peaceable Lives in all godliness and honesty This as 't is a special blessing the Church does not often enjoy so 't is one chief part of that benefit it receives by Christian Rulers And this the Light of Nature will easily guide a Magistrate to do for any Religion of the truth of which he is perswaded In the Affirmative he is not only to see that the Gospel be preached and all under him fully instructed in the truths thereof to unite all Christians and as much as in him lies preserve peace in the Church to encourage those he finds most zealous constant and sincere in the profession of the Gospel and by his own example to lead forth his Subjects in all sound Orthodox Profession and Practice But to comprehend all in one he is to endeavour in a Gospel-way to see all the Laws of Christ put in execution and as much as in him lies see his Will done in the World he is so far from being bound to execute only what the Church will have him that he is to over-see their proceedings and to take care as Christs chief Officer in the World that all things in the Church be duly and according to Christs appointment administred The Apostles words are general and full Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers Wheresoever the highest power is it must needs be so unless you will have a highest and a highest which will breed inevitable confusion the Civil power bidding a man do one thing and the Ecclesiastical another it hath ever in fact been so but under the Roman Church where the Emperors were made believe that 't was the highest piece of Religion voluntarily to yield up their Power to the Church and submit to her direction for the use of it which at first they confessed was inherent in the Emperors and not in the Church Before the Law not only the Power but the Exercise of the Priesthood it self naturally fell into the Magistrate 'T was so in Noah in Abraham and in Melchizedeck who was a King and a Priest 'T was so in Moses the Regal and Sacerdotal power were both in him till they were by God divided between him and Aaron ever since which time the exercises of Magistracy and Ministry have been and are to be distinct 'T was so likewise amongst
the Heathens Homer tells us of Princes and Heroes that Sacrificed and performed the Worship to the gods In Rome 't was manifestly so the first Roman Kings did the like Since Magistracy and Ministry has been distinctly exercised still the Inspection and Regulation of Religion and the Officers Ecclesiastical have been in the Magistrate Under the Law 't was plainly so Under the Gospel so soon as there was a Christian Magistrate that could exercise such a Power we find it so The right was the same in the Heathen powers which happily was the ground of Paul's Appeal unto Caesar though they could not then exercise it There is nothing more plain than that there may be a Right where there is not an Ability to exercise it Constantine and the Christian Emperors after him till the Church of Rome had cheated them into subjection took upon them the care and over-sight of all Religious things and to see all Christs Laws executed Constantine used to call himself The general Bishop to take care that all things were duly performed in the Church Amongst our selves we reap the Advantage of our Kings and Princes care and concern in that enjoyment we have of the Protestant Religion This shews the great weakness on the one hand of such who say the Magistrate hath nothing to do with Religion and the perfect mistake of those on the other hand who would have the Magistrate wholly Subordinate to the Church and the third extream in those who would place the Magistrate in so supream a Power as upon the matter to do what he pleaseth will be sufficiently enervated if we consider That as the Magistrate is to see that executed that Christ hath appointed in Religion so he is to bring in nothing of his own he is punctually tyed up neither to add nor diminish neither in the matter nor the manner his business is to see Laws executed not to make Laws nor change Laws Christ has no where granted any such Commission either to the Magistrate or any else upon Earth and therefore we come to a right state of the Magistrates Power when we consider him as Gods chief Officer in the World directed by the Light of Nature as well as otherwise to see that which God reveals to be his Will put in execution And that which comes particularly to the present matter in hand That he doth it under the Gospel in the manner Christ hath appointed The manner Christ hath appointed being as positively obliging as the matter and therefore the Temporal Sword when 't is used by Magistrates in the concerns of the Gospel is the Dead Fly that corrupts all their otherwise very laudable endeavours Nor need it seem strange that a Magistrate should have the care and over-sight of that wherein he is not to use the Temporal power as he is to endeavour to see that done by others under the Gospel as the Administration of the Sacraments and the like which he is not to do in his own person so he is to see that done by the Spiritual means Christ hath appointed for it which he is by no means to force the doing of by the Temporal power He that thinks the Magistrate cannot be useful to the Church without the Temporal power may with as good reason say That all other powers in the Church are useless where there is not the Temporal Sword to execute them All Societies of men are under the Regulation of the highest power but yet may act and ought to do so by distinct and proper wayes and by means suitable to each A Colledge of Physitians in a State are under the Regulament of the highest Power and yet it were very absurd to force them to give Physick as a thing in it self both unnatural and unreasonable The case is much more so in the Church nor can any instance fully reach it because the Church is a distinct thing of it self and hath Powers proper and peculiar to it in which it is so compleat that it can subsist without the Magistrate as it did in the primitive times The Civil and Ecclesiastical Power are things perfectly in themselves distinct and ought in their exercise to be kept so The highest Power governs men as men by the temporal Sword but as Christians by the spiritual and by seeing all things done in Religion by those spiritual means Christ hath appointed all which means he may make use of though exercised by other hands than his own and still in a subordination to him as Christ's chief Officer in the World who hath the Charge incumbant upon him to see all that Christ hath commanded duely put in execution But the Magistrate himself with the Power proper to him which is the temporal is not immediately to act any thing in the Church what he does is in a collateral way that were to bring a new Officer into the Church and a Power new and forreign to execute the Gospel contrary to the nature and totally destructive to the being of it The Magistrate hath wayes such as Christ thought sufficient to promote the good of Religion and propagate the growth of the Gospel without drawing the civil Sword which will make no more impression in spiritual concerns than it will do upon a Ghost that hath no real body In the execution of those he ought to acquiesce but if not content therewith he will use the civil Power to force men to believe and worship according to his Light and will take Offenders in the Church and punish them by his temporal Power what is this but to lord it over Gods Heritage and to make the Gospel Church and being a Member of it a thing of greater outward carnal fear bondage and subjection to men than ever the Law was This use of the temporal Power is the sting that wounds all liberty of Conscience and totally overthrows it If the Magistrate where I live be an Arrian a Socinian or in any such Error while he enforceth this but in a Gospel way and in Christs way of enforcing Truth only by instruction and perswasion this doth not mortally wound me this does not Petere jugulum of my liberty to keep to the Truth but if he come to establish it by the civil Power and by that suppress all else as Error my liberty in a differing perswasion is totally gone The admitting the Magistrate to use the temporal Power in executing his judgment about Religion hurries every man out of the world that is not of his mind for whatsoever will make a man an Heretick will bring a man to the Stake and every Opinion that is not the Magistrate's must needs make a man so If Christ hath enjoyned the temporal Power to be used it must have its utmost effect not only upon Hereticks within but much more upon those that are Infidels without the Church If the Magistrate be appointed to use such a power he must not tolerate any thing upon any terms nor exempt it from the lash of
large De pace Religionis ut vocant seu de Libertate Religionis seu de bono Autonomiae An quatenus concedi possit a pio Magistratu Concerning Liberty of Religion and how far it may be granted by a pious Magistrate he saith That though the Magistrate be to defend but one Religion even that which he judges to be Truth by the Word of God yet none ought to be compelled to that by outward force but every mans Conscience to be left at Liberty Et nonnunquam diversaram Religionum exercitium si non publicum saltem privatum aut clandestinum ex singularibus causis permittendum esse statuimus Atque hoc demum sensit pacem concordiam externam seu politiam inter Orthodoxos non Orthodoxos saepe etiam Hereticos simul colendam ab ipso pio Magistratu procurari posse debere existimamus And he gives these three following Reasons for his Judgment Prima nititur generalibus illis Scripturae dictis quae justiciam charitatem studiumque pacis concordiae serò nobis omnibus commendant ne quid aliter adversus proximum statuamus quam qualiter nobiscum agi vellemus diserte praecipiunt Denique at conscientiis suam libertatem concedamus dissentientes in negotio Religionis amice toleremus omnino mandant Mat. 5.7 Rom. 12.14 alibi Secunda petitur ab exemplis sapientium piorum Regum tum in veteri tum in novo Testamento c. Tertia ab ipsa naturali Equitate itemque adjuncta utilitate quam etiam experientia quotidiana fere comprobat Nam praeterquam quod aequissimum est in causa Religionis ab omni vi coactione externâ abstinere ipsis etiam rebus publicis ut ita fiat omnino expedit atque conducit quippe quae alioqui facillime turbarentur ut intestinis bellis ac mutuis lanienis tandem considerent prout hactenus in multis Europae provinciis Galliâ praesertim Belgio accidisse novimus Cum contra in Germania Helvetia Polonia alibi locorum in quibus Religionum libertas hactenus indulta fuit istis discordiis lanienis non fuerit locus Ergo resipsa per se licita bona est etiam si per accidens abusus aliquis accidere possit Alst de Eccl. Lib. 4. Cap. 14. What can be said with more truth and soberness about this matter LIBERTY of CONSCIENCE The Magistrates Interest Or To grant Liberty of Conscience to Persons of Different Perswasions in matters of Religion is the Great Interest Of all Kingdoms and States and particularly of ENGLAND Asserted and Proved HAving thus far considered those things which do most immediately reflect upon the Magistrates Duty in allowing a due Liberty to each mans Conscience We will in the next place consider how far his Interest engages him this way That 't is the great Interest of all Protestant States and particularly of England To give Liberty to men of differing Apprehensions in the Protestant Religion is evident if we consider That a Prince or State by imposing the Principles of any one party in Religion makes himself of that party and engages all the rest against him 'T is no way prudent for a Prince when his Subjects consist of many differing Judgments to resolve to have them all of one mind a thing impracticable or else to be their declared Enemy and Persecutor 't is a ready way to interrupt his own quiet and repose without any other effect for he will never by force and violence unite them in one Opinion those differences will rather be fomented and all Animosities arising thereupon and men rather fixed and confirmed by such Persecution than any way removed from their Principles by it 'T is not the having several parties in Religion under a State that is in it self dangerous but 't is the persecuting of them that makes them so First It puts them all under discontent and then unites them together in such discontent Thuanus a wise States-man saith Heretici qui pace datâ factionibus franguntur persecutione uniuntur contra Rem Publicam Those who in their Principles largely differ from each other when they come to be all bound up together in one common Volumn and linked in the same chain of Persecution and suffering will be sure to twist themselves into an united Opposition to such an undistinguishing severity Whereas the thing in it self rightly considered so many divided Interests and Parties in Religion are much less dangerous than any and may be prudently managed to ballance each other and to become generally more safe and useful to a State than any united party or interest whatever He that is suffered to enjoy under a State the freedom of his Religion when differing from the publick Profession has not only the common tye of a Subject upon him for his protection as a man but the cumulative obligation and thanks to pay for his Indulgence as a Christian under such a Character Subjects in such a posture as they will ever be studious of an opportunity to testifie their grateful fidelity and by some eminent service to lay up a stock or Merit that may secure their future quiet so they will be of any most careful not to forfeit so pleasing an Indulgence by falling under a publick displeasure A Prince in such a state of things by making himself a common Father to the whole Protestant Religion though made up of some differences within it self will be secured not only of that common Homage of Obedience and Subjection but with it that more noble of the Hearts and Affections of all his Protestant Subjects To say any party in Religion is disaffected to a State and therefore not fit for such favour when such disaffection if it be does plainly arise from the Severity of the State against them in that case the reason why favour should not be shewed is removed by showing of it For as persecuting men for their Religion must necessarily disgust them so giving them the freedom of it must needs equally oblige them 'T is no true measure to take of any parties in Religion to say the one are better Subjects than the other when the one are favoured and countenanced and the other still kept under and oppressed There is no reason but to believe there is an equal Tendency in all to love that Prince or State where they find favour and protection 't is a common disposition runs in the blood of all men and by how much the Principles of any party are less taking and plausible the less dangerous still is that party and as they will need favour more than others so they must needs lie proportionably secured to a State by the Obligation is put upon them Take it for Truth which is commonly affirmed That all such for whom Liberty is at any time desired are men full of Faction and full of Error For the first 't is certain Persecution will not only continue but foment
them altogether and what serves our turns at some times to oppose others may at last prevail upon our selves And so it is in our Practices reserving any of their Ceremonies may at last bring us to some of their Doctrines He that keeps a Holy-day is within a step of praying to that Saint for whose sake he keeps it especially if he have the wit to consider why he keeps it He that kneels and puts weight upon it is in a fair way to adoration and he that is for joyning the Cross with Baptism may come to do it after Grace and cross himself in time 'T was Bishop Bonner's observation when he saw the Reformation and how many of the Popish Ceremonies were retained being asked what he thought of it If they like saith he the taste of our Broth so well they will eat of our Beef shortly Secondly Liberty of Conscience is the great means to diffuse Gospel-knowledge in divine things and that 's the best and surest way to bar out Popery and lock the Door upon it forever Ignorance is the great and only preparative for implicit subjection Christendom cannot I dare say afford an instance that ever any State or People where Divine-Knowledge by Liberty of Conscience and a Liberty for the Gospel was once spread were in the least danger of turning Apostates to Popery but have grown daily more and more into a detestation of it and generally almost every man amongst them carrying a Weapon in his understanding to defend the Protestant Cause Were Liberty of Conscience granted in Italy and other Popish States we should soon see the Mitre totter upon the Popes Head and probably see as fair Churches there as in any other part of Europe 'T was observed in the Wars of the Low-Countries that when ever any Catholick began to look into the Bible he was not long-liv'd in the Roman Profession Thirdly Liberty of Conscience will breed men up with an irreconcilable dislike to all Imposition in Religion and Conscience and so unite them in a general abhorrence of POPERY as the grand Mother and Author of it all Chistendom over All Principles and Parties born from a Liberty given in Religion have an Antipathy in them to that Romish Yoke and do naturally unite against the Popish Religion as the grand and common Enemy of them all Let Liberty of Conscience once be given in a Protestant-State and though there be never so many differences amongst themselves yet men of all perswasions will concenter in that He that has the freedom of his Religion will be concerned to defend it and look upon Popery as the great Grant he is in danger of Experience and Fact the best of all demonstrations do evidence this Take a view of those places where Liberty of Conscience hath been most given and you will find there the greatest aversion to Popery that is in any parts of Christendom 'T is in other places where other Methods of Imposition and Persecution are used that compliance with Popery hath been attempted and projects set on foot to compound the Protestant and the Papists into an Agreement 'T is Imposition in Religion sweeps the House and keeps the Nest warm for Popery Liberty of Conscience mortally stabs it where that is once given it may be said to the Pope as it was to Belshazzar God hath numbred thy Kingdom and finished it And the place where he once Tyrannized shall know him there no more Lastly If the Church of Rome understand their own Interest as we have good reason to believe they do this Case is determined to our hands for upon every occasion since the Reformation both in Germany France Swisserland and all places where Liberty of Conscience hath been endeavoured the Popes have toto animo every way opposed it and declared it a thing perfectly destructive to the Church and such as where-ever it was suffered would destroy the Roman Faith and in that Maxim I believe their Infallibility is not much to be denied Some are so much otherwise-minded that they believe Liberty of Conscience will be the ready means to induce Popery again amongst us The Reasons of it seem invisible unless it be done by some new Rule of contraries It must either come to pass by giving Liberty in general to Protestants of differing perswasions or else by giving Liberty to the Papists themselves as included in a general Liberty For the first I hope it appears evidently to have another tendency And for the second The giving Liberty to the Papists themselves amongst us no man well informed can imagine that they should be included in any such Liberty First Because in their Practice amongst us they refuse to give that publick assurance every Subject ought to give of his Fidelity that expects the favour due to a Subject And secondly Because their Principles are such that if they understand their own Religion they can never be good Subject to any Protestant State He that knows not this knows not the ROMAN RELIGION And to prove it so by Fact Amongst very many other Instances let what was done here in the time of Queen Elizabeth to her and at the same time in France to Henry the Fourth forever lie upon Record against them Nor can a Papist ever become a true and hearty Subject to a Protestant Prince but by that act he ceaseth to be so And as common Justice does deny them all pretentions to Liberty so common Equity opposeth them for as both they and their Religion abhor giving Liberty to any but themselves so is their practice accordingly for they never give Liberty to a Soul living that differs from them where they are able and dare deny it To say That Liberty of Conscience can have no other effect but to tolerate damnable Heresies and all kind of Sectaries which is the usual way of discoursing it and so to enlarge into all kind of Satyrical Rhetorick upon that Topick is to put a Bears skin upon it and then to bait it 'T will be to impose a thing of a very hard belief upon me to say That Truth never gains by Liberty and that the Imposer is alwayes in the right and the Sufferer in the wrong especially considering he that thinks me an Heretick another thinks him so and a fourth thinks us all so and all the while we are all of us weak imperfect fallible men sitting in judgment and sentencing one another And there can be no other end of it but that he that is strongest makes himself in the right and destroys the rest When ever Truth comes to suffer by Imposition as many times it does and comes afterwards to be so acknowledged the evil of such Imposition carries its own evidence But suppose such Truth never gets any good and Liberty should be only to men under Errors and Mistakes 't were not fit then to deny it that is 't were not fit then to impose upon them for Liberty is nothing but a Negative upon Force and Imposition
se bene gesserint and for employing men and dispensing favours to them let all Parties with a due subjection lie under the Prerogative and Soveraignty of his pleasure Two things are with much earnestness usually Objected against the Grant of Liberty First That it is unbecoming the Zeal and Concern a Magistrate should have for the Truth of Religion to give Liberty to any thing but what he thinks to be so and that such a Lukewarmness as Liberty to several Opinions supposeth does no way become him Secondly That giving Liberty to men of several Opinions is the way to Propagate and Encrease them and is of great danger to a State For the First It is very fit that the Magistrate should espouse what he thinks to be the Truth and keep himself to the strict Practice of it and use all lawful means to possess others with it let him use all the means Christ and the Apostles used to convince and convert men but let him not lay Violent hands upon mens Persons because he cannot satisfie their Understandings That 's Zeal without Knowledge and Religion without a Rule either in Reason or Divinity That is to run into so wide an Extream from Laodecean Lukewarmness as to become like Paul before his Conversion who saith of himself That he was Mad Persecuting the Church To say A Magistrate is Lukewarm in Religion because he will not Force men to his Opinion is to say He is Lukewarm because he will not do a thing that Christ hath no where required of him and to do a thing that is to no purpose to do for that very end for which it is done Tolerating men has no more in it than not Forcing men 'T is only a Negative Favour there is nothing Affirmative in it A Magistrate will never be charged with Lukewarmness in Religion that makes use of all Gospel means to promote Truth and that he may do and yet never violate the due Liberty of any mans Conscience If we consult the Antient Practice of the first Christian Magistrates we shall find it plain That Liberty of Conscience was given by the Christian Emperors Constantine did it fully Eusebius in his Life time tells us That he made a Decree in these words Vt parem cum Fidelibus ij qui errant pacis quietis fruitionem gaudentes accipiant 'T is true he banished Arrius but let any man consult the Ecclesiastical History and he shall find Arrius so Factious and Base a Person that there needed no part of his Opinion to be the cause of his Exile Gratian the Emperor made likewise a Decree for Liberty in Religion The Jews had granted by all the Emperors the same Rights with other Christians Jovinian and Valentinian most Noble Princes suffered Christians of several Perswasions to enjoy their Liberty Of this Grotius in his Book De Imp. Sum. Potes Circ Sac. Cap. 8. takes particular notice adding these words and saith which is more to be Noted The Emperor did not only permit Jmpunity to Disagreeing Sects but often made Laws to order their Assemblies Liberty therefore in Religion is not either so new or so strange a thing or so great a Monster as men would make it State-Religions are not always Infallibly true Truth sometimes keeps men from embracing them it doth so in many parts of Christendom and in that case a Negative Restraint upon the Magistrates compulsion is the only shelter of Truth The Wisdom of Christ who hath forbid the use of the Temporal power under the Gospel about Religion hath left things best For if a Magistrate be in the right he may promote Truth as far as in the nature of the thing and by Christ's appointment it can be promoted If he be not in the right where the Temporal Power does not interpose men are secured in the profession of Truth and not hazarded in refusing a publick Error He that would have the Magistrate force all men to his Religion will himself be burnt by his own Principles when he comes into a Country where the State-Religion differs from him To say He is in the right and the State that does it in the wrong is a miserable begging the Question If one Magistrate be to do it all are to do it and there can be no other Rule of Truth and Error in that case but what they think so If a Magistrate be once admitted to punish with Death what is really and truly in it self an Heresie he may and must by the same Rule so punish every thing he thinks so Where shall the Definition of Heresie terminate And who shall set the Magistrate bounds in such a case Mis-information Passion or some sinister Interest can only lead men into such Principles which tend to nothing but to make Religion disturb the peace and quiet of all Mankind and as one saith well To bring Christians to a Butchery one of another and to make a meer Shambles of Christendom For the Second Objection That giving Liberty to several Parties Encreaseth them and makes them dangerous to a State First 'T is very fit that wheresoever you will suppose Errors to be sprung up all the means Christ hath appointed for that end should be used to suppress them and reclaim men from them Let their Mouthes be stopped with sound Doctrine and spiritual Censures the only Question is about the use of the temporal Power in such things And Experience tells us That since the World began to this day Principles and Opinions in the Mind were never extinguished by the punishing the Body That old Saying verifies it Sanguis Martyrum Semem Ecclesiae Nay there is nothing under the Sun to promote an Opinion in Religion like making men suffer for it The Constancy and Courage of men in suffering for an Opinion will sooner perswade men to it than all the Discourses and Sermons in the World If the Magistrate take a Violent course to root out all different Opinions in Religion such as the Emperors heretofore when Heathen took with the Christians and the Popish States where they are able do at this day with the Protestants besides the Cruelty of it with which he will besmear himself he will miss of his end and find a Succession of those Principles in others rising out of the Ashes of those Destroys as it used to be said heretofore by the Martyrs Quoties morimur toties nascimur If he take a mild and more gentle way of Persecution he only exasperates them and then leaves them arm'd with all possible Discontent to hurt him Consider the giving Liberty under these two Heads First The giving of it to several Opinions and Parties where they are already actually existing And Secondly The giving Liberty so as will occasion and produce such Parties and Opinions For the First Where there are several Parties in Religion already in being and diffused all over a Nation as the case is with us there is no way to secure them but to indulge them for they are
Practices a man may discern without a pair of Spectacles ERROUR and SUPERSTITION coming in apace LIMPING upon their old crooked Crutches of IMPLICIT FAITH and BLIND OBEDIENCE And least you should not know how to answer these Queries I will answer them in the Words of our own Principles that so you may the better behold your Revoltings and perceive your Innovations and take notice of your Apostatizing from your Primitive Principles But if my Answer please you not then let me see by one Answer of your own what you can say for your selves Query I. Whether to Impose any thing upon another Mans Conscience either to do or practice be not a doing otherwise to others than we would they should do unto us and so Antichristian See the Second and Third Chapter about Marriages Answ Yea For so says R. Hubberthorn in his Works p. 188. where he tenders seven Reasons why no Impositions ought to be upon any Mans Conscience by any but the Lord. And says he To Impose any thing upon another Mans Conscience either to do or Practice is not A doing to others as they would be dealt by and therefore is contrary to Christs Doctrine which say I is ANTICHRISTIAN Query II. Whether such Societies as do not govern themselves according to their Primitive Principles but erect new Orders and new Models of Government New Ceremonies and new ways of Sentencing Judging and Condemning the Innocent Recording and Excommunicating such as cannot yield Conformity and Uniformity thereunto do not more resemble Tyranny than Order Nay Is it not Antichristian Answ Yea For all Societies are to Govern themselves according to their Institutions and First Principle of Union where there is violence upon this Part Tyranny and not Order is Introduced Now since Perswasion and Conviction begun all true Christian Societies ALL Christian-Societies MVST uphold themselves upon the same Free Bottom or they turn Antichristian Query III. Whether to restrain People from the free Exercise of their Consciences or to compel People to act against their Faith and Perswasion in Matters Spiritual be not Popish and a Practice of the Church of ROME Address to Prot. pag. 149. 150. Answ Yea For the Apostle in his Day said Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Mind or Conscience And did not go about to force People to Conform to such Things as they were not perswaded of in their own Consciences But the Church of Rome doth not admit that every one should Walk or Act as they are Perswaded in their own Conscience See Josiah Coal's Whore Vnvailed p. 71. 72. Query IV. If so Whether it be not Wisdom to beware of this Trojan Horse of this Practice which so much resembles Rome who commonly lay more Stress upon their own Ceremonies and written Traditions Orders and Institutions than upon the holy Scriptures or the Primitive Christians Example Answ Yea I beseech you Protestants by the Mercies of God and Love of Jesus Christ Ratified to you in his most precious Blood Fly Rome at Home have a care of this Presumption carry it not too high lay not Stress where God hath laid none Neither use his Royal Stamp to Authorise your Apprehensions in the Main of his Institutions Address to Prot. p. 77. Query V. Whether the holy Scriptures be not of more Authority than our written Traditions and Orders And whether it be not as commendable now to search the Scriptures to see whether our Orders Traditions and Ceremony be agreeable to them as it was formerly for the Bereans who by the Scripture examined Pauls Testimony Seeing some of you call them the Professors Weapons and will not suffer them to be alledged in our Quarterly-Meetings Answ Yea For it cannot be denyed But that the great Foundation of our Protestant Religion is the Divine Authority of the Scriptures from without us and the Testimony and Illumination of the holy Spirit within us Vpon this Foot the First Reformers stood and made and maintained their Separation from Rome with good Cause therefore it is the general consent of all Sound Protestant Writers That neither Traditions Counsels nor Cannons of any Visible Church much less the Edicts of any Civil Sessions or Jurisdiction but the Scripture ONLY Interpreted by the Holy Spirit in us give the final Determination in Matters of Religion and that Only in the Conscience of Every Christian to himself which Protestation made by the First Publick Reformers against the Imperial Edicts of Charles the Fifth Imposing Church Traditions without Scripture Authority Mark you Order Makers the same Cause moves to the same thing gave first beginning to the Name Protestant and with that Name hath ever been received this Doctrine which prefers the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and Spirit to that of the Church and her Traditions Address to Prot. p. 148. Query VI. Whether it be not a Popish Tenet to cry down Wisdom and to say That Wisdom will destroy us as 't is usually with you to say for the Papists care not how foolish the Common People are nor how much in Ignorance it being as they say the Mother of Devotion they educate them provided thir Ministers and Jesuits be very expert and able to defend their way of Worship and heap of Ceremonies And when do any that Write or Dispute to defend our Way of Worship write and speak like Fools except they can neither write nor speak otherwise and why do you cry out against Wisdom upon every occasion as if Ignarance were become our only Darling Answ For to admire what Men do not know and to make it a Principle not to enquire is the last Mark of Folly in the Believers and of Imposture in the Imposers To be short a Christian Implyes a Man and a Man implyes Conscience and Vnderstanding but he that hath no Conscience nor Vnderstanding as he hath not who hath delivered them up to the Will of another men is no Man and therefore no Christian Upon this Principle Men must be made Fools in Order to believe Shall Folly which is the Shame if not the Curse of a man be the Perfection of a Christian. Address to Prot. pag. 187. Query VII Is it not great Deceit and Illusion first to make Rules or Cannons to walk by and when any refuse Obedience to them and cannot for Conscience sake Conform to them then to Senctence Judge and Record such out of the Unity and yet to the World pretend and that in Print that we do no such Thing I say Is not this great Decoit and Delusion Answ Yea That our Friends says W. P. meaning us the People called Quakers Require any men to practice what they are not convinced of I utterly renounce in their Name and that at an Infamous Slander Alexander the Copper-Smith page 10. Query VIII Whether Antichristian Practices Popish Principles Contempt of Scriptures Folly Ignorance and Partiality Practising one thing and Pretending another be Corruptions or no If yea then whether or no a private Man ought not
to discover it if he perceives such things entring the Church Answ That both the Reading of the Scriptures and the care of Religion belongs not to the Pasture of the Church ONLY But that every one that would be Saved ought to make deligent Search whether any Corruption be already or is for the Future like to be Introduced and this to be done no less carefully I hope I shall perform this Duty than if he was perswaded that all besides himself were asleep Now forasmuch as the Profit will be small If some private Man shall observe that an Errour is Introduced unless he discovers the said Errour and lays it open Address to Prot. p. 163. Read pages 93. 94. 95. 144. 146. 141. 142. c. Query IX Whether the Barbadoes Order upon Record which is To give up our whole Concern if required both Spiritual and Temporal to the Judgement of the Spirit of God in the Mens and Womens-Meetings See Babels-Builders p. 5. And the Isle of Elyes Orders upon Record in our Quarterly Book which says Thath for time to come no Friends may permit or suffer Marriages without the consent of Friends at two Mens and two Womens-Meetings being distinct and apart each from other Be not Innovations and the Setters of them up and confirming them Innovators and do they not do violence to our First Principles of Union Answ Yea Whosoever brings in or Sets up other Precepts Constitutions Orders and Practices in Point of Worship and would set up other Traditions than the Apostle delivered either by Word or Writing such are manifest to have the Spirit of Errour and are Innovators See Francis Howgil's Works p. 236. And that he begun to see the Evil Effects of Councils See his Works p. 534. where he quotes Dr. Paraeus Gregorius Theologus and Gregorius Nazianzenus c. Who complained of the Lordliness of the Ministers and Bishops and that seldom any Good came of Councils as he there at large sets forth c. George Fox See if thou hast not as much Need of a Battledoore as the Scholars and Professors had Who art as much Apostatized from they former Principles for Liberty of Conscience as the Scholars and Professors were from the single Language viz. Thee and Thou to a single Person And therefore to bring People to that which is not of Faith is to bring them into SIN to make Shipwrack of Faith and a Good Conscience Gosp Lib. p. 23. wrote 1668. by G. F. And in his several Papers given forth for detecting Deciet 't is thus said The Worlds Guide is without them in the Traditions and Precepts of men which lead from God p. 5. c. But now Conform to Hadenham Orders or Record him out of the Unity c. As at large in Cap. 3. These Orders were made the 1st of the 10th Month 1675. This I set here not to Adore Because I do well understand He that gave forth the Battledore Now brings Grapes of another Land Which Sower be because not free From Force and Impositions Although as yet he will not see Them like Old Romes Traditions These Queries or the Substance of them I sent to G. Whitehead but never received any Answer from him only there came an obscure Letter to my hands from R. R. but who it was or where he dwelt he did not acquaint me and whether the said Letter may be accounted any thing of an Answer or whether he doth not rather manifest the obscure Author to be a Man full of Contempt Scorn and Disdain and Abuse in that he calls and accounts me Conceited Befooled my Ignorance blinded Lyes perverse Lyer and yet doth not particular one Instance to prove me to be such an one c. I shall leave with the Impartial Reader to weigh and consider when he hath read the said Letter and my Answer to it a Coppy of both hereafter follow Francis Bugg I Know thy Name and Nature though not thy Person A mean Sight may discern it through thy own Spectacles plainly enough to be Abusive Vnworthy and Foolish though conceited in this Matter at present I could be glad to know 't were otherwise now so would others If not I believe G. W. will send thy Papers to the Quarterly Meeting who I believe will see and disown thy Abuse both of this Meeting at London particular Friends and themselves and especially the Truth wherein they are concerned and wherein they Labour and Travel though therein thou abusively comparest them to the Abuses of Bishops Orders Constitutions Decrees Cannons Cheating and other Terms I cannot now remember nor thou understand else thou wouldst write them in truer English and better sense This I mention to meet with and abate thy Concietedness to help thee with Spectacles to see how unfit thou art to undertake to be a Judge of Learning in that kind as well as to be a Judge of such Friends in Truth and such Meetings of Friends in an incomparably higher in imperiously and menacingly requiring them to advise and consent to the altering the Quarterly Meeting Book in your Parts as if thou hadst both this and that Meeting at thy Devotion either to bend to thy hand at thy pleasure or else to undo by thy Publication The Bishoprick thou speakest of and the Promotion aspired to by the Bryar and Thistle in Lebanon which can but prick and rake the Skin cannot destroy as it would that within and that Nature thou art in can but blister it for a time and must in the end be crushed So turn from it in time and signifie it to those thou hast wornged is my Advice to thee they Lyes and Revilings are not worth Answering to be like thee they are so gross vain Thy Queries differ in the Principle from which they proceed and the End to which they tend from the thou makest thy Answer from Friends and that which is defective in two Principal Causes is far from Good which is from intire Cause Conceit hath so blinded thee thou canst neither see Beginning nor End If I did not see thy perverse willful gross Lyes I should answer to thy Ignorance But thus much at present is meet thou shouldst know how it hath befooled thee From him that hath learned so much from the Truth though by thee despised and belyed R. R. For Francis Bugg The Queries are before and the Letters wrote by me and other Friends which I suppose he takes the Imperiousness and Menacing from shall follow after the Answer I sent him for which he accounts me so foolish befooled blinded my Ignorance not wrote in true English c. To which I refer the Reader First then my Answer I sent him Viz. F. Bugg his Answer to R. R's Letter R. R. I Have received a few Lines from thee bearing no Date nor yet acquainting me who thou art otherwise than by R. R. nor yet where thou dwellest by which I perceive thou lovest Obscurity If these Lines of mine chance to find thee out